Being a tourist can be fun!

Being in the middle of nowhere has several implications. First of all, you're far removed from civilization and the good food that goes with it and second of all, as a traveler, it is unlikely that you would spend a lot of time in touristy places. Well, today, all the orientation groups got tickets to all these tourist spots and all the students doing the summer language program spent a day in the part of Hong Kong called Tsim Sha Tsui and Central being cam-whoring tourists.

We began our day with a voyage on an ancient fishing junk called the Duk Ling:



I don't have very good pictures of it, so the photo above is from the intertubes. The boat went around the harbour and rocked quite a bit when a huge wave formed by other boats hit the sides. Hong Kong harbour is interesting but small, so after about 20 minutes, I fell asleep on the boat. It was a rather nice nap, although I'm probably really tanned from the whole trip because the sun was beating down on us...

After the boat ride, I was still tired and really hungry. So much so, that my head started to hurt and I almost fell off stairs. Luckily, we got to a restaurant called Tsui Wah and my energy was restored with one of my favourite Cantonese dishes: chicken and salted-fish fried rice. There was also an obligatory lemon tea involved. (Lemon tea - and milk tea aka black tea with milk - is basically a staple drink in Hong Kong. I saw a huge box of lemons in the restaurant today) By the way, all the food pr0n will be posted on facebook later when I get home.

Anyways, with our blood sugar level up and our stomachs full, we took the tram up to Victoria Peak, the highest point in Hong Kong. The tram ride was odd because you went up this steep slope and when you looked out the window, all the buildings looked as if they were all slanted.


Anyways, our at Victoria Peak, there was a cool building and I met Meryl Streep. Oops, I mean, I went to the Hong Kong location of Madame Tussaud's wax museum.


I took pictures with a lot of personalities, including but not limited to Johnny Depp, Obama, Shakespeare, Picasso, the Beatles, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Hitler (I poked him in the nose), Mikhail Gorbachev (to make my darling Russian friend proud) and Humphrey Bogart. There was also a random haunted house or "asylum for the criminally insane" in there. There were actors and they jumped at you but weren't allowed to touch you. I laughed through the whole thing. I guess I don't understand the terror of a tub full of blood that was clearly solid, made of plastic and labeled, "Bloodbath."

In any case, the day was fun and it ended with an interesting ride home where a guy who was sitting beside us in the subway entered our conversation and told me that suicide was preferable to going to Guangzhou. Oh dear... the list of horror stories of the place continues. Maybe I'll make an offering when I go to the temple tomorrow. I will say more on that later. I'll conclude by sending everyone lots of hugs and happy thoughts. =D